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[personal profile] winterfirelight
This past weekend the weather was lovely, so I took on the project of taking out the massive, invasive butterfly bush that was planted by the previous owners. It's been on the to do list for ages, and I'm very happy to have it finally done! We've so much more space now, and we won't have to worry about constant pruning to keep it from growing over the garden path. I thought for sure I was going to have to take up part of the path to dig it out, but somehow the roots were positioned such that it barely disturbed the path at all. I did relocate a number of strawberries and a few bulbs, but I had been planning on moving them anyway, so no loss there. 

I also cleared out dead growth from the square plot and found a lot of new calendula coming up, which is always exciting to see. I'm hopeful that I won't need to plant anything new in that bed, and that everything will have either self-seeded or will come back up on its own as the weather warms. My goal is to have most of the garden full of perennials and self-seeding annuals so I've less to do in terms of planting every year, but there's still lots of space to fill, so it'll be a couple of years yet before that's realized.

And in the backyard, I got the nettle potted up! It would be exciting to see that flourish this summer - safely far away from places people walk, and helpfully contained so as not to cause A Problem. I still want a few more pots out there for other aggressive spreaders - I have lemon balm I need to relocate from the front, and various other seeds in the mint family I'd like to plant without them taking over.
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[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today we visited the Charleston Food Forest, Coles County Community Garden, and Lake Charleston. These are the food forest pictures. What started out as a beautiful fall day, sunny and cool, clouded over by the time we got out of the house. So the lighting isn't great, but at least the pictures look okay. (Continue with the community garden and the lake.)

Walk with me ... )
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
I enjoy growing dark-colored plants.  I have black flowers, bronze leaves, black fruits, all kinds of interesting things.

Walk with me ... )
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
I took some pictures around the yard. These are from Monday. See the south lot.

Walk with me ... )
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Today we visited the Charleston Food Forest.  I took pictures and rescued some plants that were growing in the paths so they don't get trampled. These pictures are mostly from the right side. See Part 2 Left Side.

Walk with me ... )
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Almost everything in the Charleston Food Forest is something I'm growing, would like to grow, or at least recognize from edible plant studies. So I thought it would be fun to break that down, listed in approximate spatial order moving through the lists of pictures ...

Read more... )
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[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
My partner Doug spotted this place recently, and today we explored the Charleston Food Forest and its plants. (See Part 2 Right Back, Part 3: Left BackPart 4 Left Front, and What I'm Growing.) It's a skinny rectangle, and not all that big. If you cut it in half and lined the halves up as a square, then it would fit in a typical town yard around here. It has a LOT of plants in it, thoughtfully chosen and arranged. I wouldn't call it a food forest myself, because while it has multiple layers, it is really short. I doubt anything is more than about 10-12 feet tall. That's sensible in a garden this small. But when I think of a forest, I'm thinking one that at least has a canopy layer. Mine has emergents, the main canopy, the subcanopy, and then all the shorter stuff as shown here (understory trees, shrubs, herbs, groundcovers, roots, fungi, vines, etc.). So I'd probably call this one a permaculture garden. (See the layers of a food forest and permaculture design principles.) I didn't spot actual guilds, but everything is arranged in logical order. Someone has done an amazing job setting this up in the space available.

The really subversive thing: it's not a garden to be looked at, it's a garden to be used, for free, by everyone. A little slice of Terramagne, or Turtle-Island-That-Was, especially since it's located right next to a government building with several human service offices. So I helped myself to some seeds. Sure, I might come back later for things to eat. But what I am really interested in is gathering things from here that I can grow at home.

I could only think of two things I'd really add to make this even better:

1) A Little Free Seed / Plant Library so folks could swap things.

2) A community bulletin board, chiefly for people to post their Have / Want lists for trading, but could also be used to announce things like plant swaps or sales, garden open houses, etc. There is an Events section on the back side of the welcome sign, but it's under glass.

Walk with me ... )
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
I took some pictures around the yard today. These are from the house yard and the south lot.

Read more... )
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
I picked herbs from my yard to make an omelette. :D My post includes a link to my earlier omelette recipe for anyone who's into that.
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
Yesterday before we went out, I took some yard pictures. It was finally sunny, so I got good ones this time.

Walk with me ... )
ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
I took a few more pictures of my yard today. The lighting still isn't great, but there's a lot going on.

Walk with me ... )
rafiwinters: (The Woods)
[personal profile] rafiwinters
So I have a garden now!

Yesterday morning my wife and I went to a nearby garden center--a locally owned and independent one, not one of the big chain stores. This place had been recommended by someone I know, and they were super nice, super helpful and informative. We came away with:

* two cherry tomato plants (Sungold variety)
* two large lavender plants--they also had smaller ones in smaller pots but I rly rly like lavender
* two different kinds of marigolds--different shades of yellow/orange/reddish, total ten plants

And one each of:

* sage
* marjoram
* thyme
* rosemary
* mint
* lemon balm

And when we got home it was threatening to rain, so I went right out and planted my haul from the garden center. Mint and lemon balm in pots to be kept out of the main garden. Rosemary at either side, lavender plants together near one of the rosemarys, marigolds in two lines, the other things in the rest of the garden. I ended up tilling a bit more space, for the lavender and rosemary, and so I would have space kept clear for eventually planting bulbs in the fall for blooming next spring. Yup, thinking ahead!

It started raining just as I was tidying up (putting pots and tools away, throwing away some trash that had been in the garden bed, etc.), and I dodged inside just as it got steady. Perfect timing for new little baby plants.

Intro Post

Feb. 25th, 2020 07:33 pm
darkestabsol: (Default)
[personal profile] darkestabsol
With spring coming soon, I figured it was high time to start preparing for growing season to start, and ended up here. Anyway, info!

I live in Canada, in roughly zone 8 or 9. Last year I had a few potted herbs (basil, cilantro, thyme) and some broccoli growing, but this year I want to expand with a few more herbs (mint, sage, oregano) and vegetables (peas, beans, lettuce, radishes). I also want to transplant last year's thyme plants to a bigger container to get it away from the mint my mom put next to it. I'll have to keep watch to make sure the mint doesn't try to overrun the thyme post transplant via any roots, but we'll see what happens.

And here's a couple pictures of my newly sprouting oregano and last year's thyme )

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